Thursday, March 28, 2024

WILD COOT: Bad habits

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MANY OF THE OLD, TRIED WAYS are falling into disuse today. Perhaps that is part of the reason why we in the Caribbean seem to be lost.

Two cases concern me right now.

I believe that a West Indian cricketer has the right to earn as much money as he can during the span of his career from age 18 to 36. During that time, most cricketers sacrifice going to university, learning a trade, engaging in an entrepreneurial effort in pursuit of their craft.

Their future is often fragile and depends on the way they can invest what is earned during those significant years. Today, many cricketers are involved in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and earn a sizable reward from playing, although many who do not represent an IPL franchise earn a pretty penny representing the West Indies at some level.

Quite often a player’s IPL schedule comes into conflict with his duties as a West Indies player, and he is faced with a choice. The choice should always end in favour of his country. It is his country that has nourished him and placed him in the sights of the IPL.

When a player has to make this choice and chooses in favour of the IPL, then he has made his bed and must lie in it. He should not expect selection again for a West Indian side. Full stop! He is then free to pursue an IPL career.

It is this pussyfooting that is now part of the present disgrace. It is also seen in the blatant breach of an undertaking by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in breaking its word to peace-broker Dr Ralph Gonsalves on Dwayne Bravo’s non-selection. Inconceivable!

Mr Sunil Narine, good player that he is, is lucky to have the support of the WICB now in his difficulties after he chose to play for his IPL team when he was needed for the Bangladesh tour. Eventually, he was ruled out of playing in the IPL for whatever reason.

My second beef is this debate about spanking/disciplining a child with a rod. It is said that a parent or a teacher does not get satisfaction from lashing a child; well, think again.

In addition to the disciplinary measure, the wielder of the rod gets a lot of satisfaction if the effect puts the recalcitrant recipient on the right path. He had done a duty to society. The agonised reaction of the recipient is a source of pleasure for the administrator. He wants to smile but convention prevents him from doing so.

My mother, God rest her in her grave these 32 years, was in favour of picking twigs about 14 inches long from a hog plum tree and applying them to the feet of her children. The resulting stings were felt for hours, reminding them of their errant ways.

Up to now the Wild Coot can still feel the stings! Who gives you the right to say that you cannot apply the strap to a boy or girl if you catch them repeatedly stealing? Mere words may need enforcement if it’s the third or fourth time that they have been caught, especially if it is in public.

Lash them! It may keep them out of prison.

We seem to be importing all of the inappropriate habits from the outside, without studying the impact on their societies. Pressure to change our laws and bring them into “modern” times seems to focus mainly on the negative.

Look at the biblical Lot. Though preaching against the habits of the errant folk of Sodom and Gomorrah, he still indulged in hypocritical ways. He was lucky that his life was spared in the destruction of Sodom. Though he was repulsed by the idea of his male guest being sodomised, he was prepared to have his daughters gang-raped. Though he was preaching against the sin of lecherous behaviour, he enjoyed drinking, debauchery and fornicating with his own daughters, not once but twice, on successive nights.

It seems that he was a perfect shot, resulting in the Moabites and the Ammonites, two tribes that cannot stand each other even today. Have we here in Barbados learned our lesson? We hanker after compromises that seem contrary to natural logic but are we not hypocrites by our indulgences?

Wild Coot, you can talk hooey but the Moabite line produced Jesus. Ask Ruth if you can find her.

 

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